He found himself back on his battleship in the middle of a massive battle, it was The Battle of Svolder if he remembers correctly. This was his final battle, as it was for many others. 

“Haha! This is what we’ve been waiting for, isn't it Alek!?” Laughed Thorkell. Thorkell, also known as Thorkell the Tall, towered over all others at 7’7, he was one of the most feared and powerful vikings of the time. His ability to wield 2 greataxes at once was terrifying enough, most struggled to efficiently use a single ax with 2 hands. He was able to cleave through groups of soldiers with minimal effort. He was unmatched in battle, except for the man he calls his rival, Aleksander. Aleksander surpassed even Thorkell when it came to notoriety. He was 6’3, which was taller than most but nothing outlandish, however what made him so terrifying was his unyielding skill with a blade and remarkably unshakable determination. He was emotionless, a powerful soldier who would stop at nothing if it was for the sake of his country. 

As the Danish were getting crushed by the powerful English army it seemed that all hope was truly lost. The Danish were outnumbered 1 to 10 with Thorkell and Alek’s ship being one of the few remaining vessels. Thorkell, of course, was ecstatic that he was in such a predicament, he found normal 1 on 1 or even 1 on 5 fights boring. So a fight with him vs an innumerable amount of foes was exactly what he wanted. Alek did not share this sentiment, he too, was powerful enough to strike down countless enemies, but he didn’t fight because he thought it was fun. He fought because he wanted to protect his nation. As hordes of English men swarmed the ship, Thorkell and Alek stood their ground. 

“This is what I’m talking about!” Shouted Thorkell, performing a wide swing with one of his axes, killing 8 men. 

“Do they not learn?” Alek calmly stated, weaving and cutting through another group of English soldiers.

“I sure hope not!” Thorkell laughed. “Hey Alek! Check it out! We killed everyone on this boat, let’s take it and sail back to Denmark.” Thorkell leapt onto the English ship which pulled up next to theirs so the soldiers could invade them. However, with all the soldiers being dead, it was up for grabs. Alek stood on the stern of the ship, gazing at the foreign land ahead of him. He turned to look at the countless bodies he was responsible for and truly realized how sad he was. He’d realized that he’d had enough of this. Of war, of blood, of fighting. He jumped into the icy water below and just swam, he didn’t know where he was swimming to but he just swam.

“Woah Alek whatcha doin buddy?” Thorkell asked whilst Alek was jumping in. At this point Alek was already gone and Thorkell had no idea why he would plunge into the ocean. “Huh, guess he really didn’t wanna go back”.

After swimming for some time Alek found another unoccupied boat. He took this boat and simply let it take him where the wind pleased. He ended up in a foreign land, it was beautiful. Wheat fields as far as the eye could see, with nothing but blissful and cordial townsfolk welcoming him. He decided to spend the rest of his life here, he had met an incredible woman and had 2 children with her.

“Never be so sure Arne, there are some who pillage and conqueror for nothing but pleasure” Alek shook his head, remembering his past. As if the devil himself was listening, a villager came running towards Alek and Arne with a terrified expression on his face.

“ALEK! Soldiers from the Danish kingdom are asking for you, they say they need you for an upcoming battle” The village nervously said.

“Me? I haven’t fought it over 15 years” Alek questioned 

“I tried telling them, they said it doesn’t matter, and that ‘Aleksander, the blade of the king, will never rust’” He sighed.

“Very well, I shall head to the docks” Alek shook his head and began walking.

“Dad! Can I come, I wanna go to battle too!” Arne excitedly asked,  jumping up and down. Alek stopped, he turned around and crouched, putting a hand on each of Arnes shoulders.

“Listen to me Arne, you can never go to war, it is nothing but terror and bloodshed. Besides, if you leave here, who will protect your mother and sister?” Alek looked him straight in the eye as he said this.

“I guess” Arne pouted. He however had no intention of listening to his father, and very well planned on sneaking aboard the ship.

                                                         ***

“What do you mean you won’t come along?” The man asked. “It’s a direct order from the general, you don’t have a choice” He explained

“Leif, I respect you, and you know that, but I have a new life here, I’m not a soldier any longer” Alek sighed. He’s been talking to the soldiers for nearly 20 minutes now, but he, however, refused to budge.

“Not a soldier? You’re the Aleksander, you could start fighting when you were 65 and still be able to kill 5 men in the blink of an eye” Leif shouted. Him and Alek were old friends, or more akin to acquaintances , but regardless they were friendly at least.

“I don’t care” Alek crossed his arms and stood his ground.

“Ok, but Alek, we're not asking, You’re going to come with us.” Leif was getting impatient.

“Is that so?” Alek smirked, uncrossing his arms and walked right up to Leif, he was nearly an entire foot taller.

“Cmon Alek, don’t be this way. You know even if we do leave, if we return to the general without you we’ll just have to come back, and with more firepower as well” Leif turned around and began walking towards the ship. “Just make this easier for all of us and get on” he gestured his hand toward the ship.

Alek thought for a moment, he knew Leif was right, and if he bothered the general by not coming, his village could be put at risk. 

“Fine.” Alek boarded the ship. The soldiers prepared to leave, with Alek and a few other men from the village. Unbeknownst to them, Arne and some friends were hidden in storage barrels aboard the ship. Tensions were high onboard, Alek didn’t want to be there, and everyone knew this, so they were worried he could go berserk at any given moment and kill them all. Arne had to sneak out of his barrel during the night in order to secure food for himself, and the other boys did the same.

“Attention! We’re going to be making a stop at an icelandic port to refill on supplies. Let’s get a count of all food and water so we know what we need.” Leif commanded all passengers of the ship.

“Aye” they lazily responded in unison.

They proceeded to count all their rations, they were low on food and water due to the 4 extra mouths they were unwillingly feeding. Arne heard of this stop and got excited, he could explore this iceland town and see what the world was like outside his village. It was far too late for him to be taken back home so even if he was caught, his father could only punish him so much.

“LAND AHEAD!” Shouted the lookout.

“Everyone ready?” Leif asked

“Hmph” Alek grunted in response.

The entrance to the port was a very narrow path, with high rock walls on either side of it, it was very secure as it provided only one, very easily defensible, path into the town. As the boat began to enter the narrow path, Alek immediately knew something was amiss. For such a busy town, there was a deafening silence, as they approached the left turn into the village he knew that something terrible had happened. There was nobody in town, and wreckage all over the port. He put his hand on his hilt and prepared for the worse. A boat pulled into the entrance behind them, blocking their only exit. The port being destroyed and their exit being blocked, Leif’s crew had no choice but to stop the ship.

“Hey there!” A man stood on the ship behind them, waving, seeming rather friendly. His ship pulled up to be right next to Leif’s, he was much easier to hear now.

“What is the meaning of this?” Leif demanded.

“Ahhh come on, no need to be so hostile! Name’s Ellias, pleased to meet you” He stuck his hand out from across his ship, as if wanting a rather distanced handshake.

“Are you the ones who destroyed this port?” Leif scowled.

“Maybe, maybe not, let’s not worry about silly things like that alright? Besides you have much bigger concerns” His tone shifted and his friendly smile faded into a menacing smirk. He stuck his right hand up and near 20 men came from below deck of his ship, all with their blades drawn. 

“Oh-ho! Jackpot! Is that Aleksander I see over there? There’s a crazy bounty on your head y’know?” Ellias whistled, using his hand to shield the sun from his eyes. “How about this, you give us roughly half your supplies, along with Alek, and we let you go, deal?”

“Ha! Take all the supplies you want, but there is no chance of you guys taking Alek without dying” Leif laughed. At this point, Ellias’s men had begun to ransack their ship, taking everything they wanted.

“Yes you may very well be correct” Ellias furrowed his brow, trying to come up with a solution to this problem. During this time, one of Ellias’ men had opened the barrel that contained Arne, Arne fell out of the barrel and tried to run, before being grabbed. Alek saw this and prepared to lunge but stopped himself. Ellias, however, noticed this.

“Ahhh I see, boy, what’s your name?” Ellias cockily asked.

“A-arne” He sobbed.

“How lovely, tell me, do you know that man right there?” Ellias pointed to Alek. Alek looked Arne stern in the eyes, as if trying to convey a mental message.

Arne hesitated for a moment. “N-no, they came to get him at my village and I snuck aboard, none of them knew” Arne shakily answered.

“Hm, is that so? Then I suppose he won’t mind if I do this” Ellias drew his blade and raised it, holding Arne’s arm out so he could easily slice it. As Ellias swung, Alek drew his sword and dashed towards Ellias, within a second the distance between them was gone and he stood there with the edge of his blade mere inches from his neck.

“Well guess that you aren’t just some pushover” Ellias dropped Arne and his blade. “But you still don’t seem to understand” At this moment Ellias whistled,and atop the rock walls surrounding them, upwards of 50 men with bows and arrows all drawn revealed themselves.

Leif’s men started stirring, realizing the imminent danger they were in, and that Alek may not be the security they thought he was. “I see, I will come with you, if you spare the rest” Alek sheathed his weapon.

“That’s what I like to hear!, MEN! Bring the supplies back and let's go!” Ellias barked. Ellias turned his back to begin walking back to the ship, and in an instant Alek raised his sword and swung it down on Ellias, with enough force to shatter the ship below. 

Ellias, with not a moment's hesitation, shifted to the left, completely evading Alek’s attack. He looked back at Alek and simply smirked. A look of shock spread across Alek’s face, realizing what just happened. Due to his outburst, the archers atop of the rock walls all released their arrows. Not towards Alek, but Arne. Being the inhuman soldier he was, Alek was able to see this and right before contact was made he crouched down and hugged Arne, completely shielding him.

Arne hadn’t even been able to process what had occurred, he was just standing there, in shock, not realizing his father had been completely pulverized. 

“Arne…” His breathing was shallow, and voice soft. “I love you… and Arne, you have no enemies…not a single one” With the last of his strength he tightened his hold on Arne, embracing him with his last breath. Aleksander, the greatest viking to ever live, has died.

“A fool's death” Ellias sighed, shaking his head

“Alek….” Leif softly said, looking down. The rest of the crew was mortified.

Arne, realizing what had just occurred, began to cry. This lasted for nearly 5 minutes before Ellias’ crew reboarded their ship.

“A shame we couldn’t take him back with us, we would’ve made a fortune” Ellias lowered his gaze to Arne. “Well I guess this is the next best thing” He grabbed Arne and took him aboard his ship. Arne, in utter shock and despair, didn’t bother resisting. “Burn the ship and kill the rest” He waved his hand. A slaughter began, and all of Leif’s men including himself as well as the other children were murdered. As Arne could do nothing but watch and listen to their screams and cries. Ellias and his men along with Arne have set off to whoever they will rob next.

“Well you wouldn’t sell for much being as small as you are, but I guess you can come along with us, with your blood you might be able to make a fine soldier” Ellias nodded. Arne didn’t respond, his head was filled with the horrific scene that had played out before him.

He didn’t know how long he’d been sailing with Ellias’s crew for, but he wasn’t terribly mistreated or anything. The crew treated him as one of their own, they laughed and joked with him in an attempt to get him to smile. Ever since the day his father died he hadn’t been able to feel any sort of positive emotion. He was always brooding or glaring at everyone and everything. He was fed regularly and allowed to do almost anything he wanted. Once they got to the next island however everything changed, the only reason Arne was treated so well was Ellias commanded it. Perhaps it was some sort of pity but it was the only reason he was still alive. At the town they raided however Ellias wasn’t always around so the crew members bullied him and would only feed him whatever they didn’t eat, which wasn’t much. Later that night, whilst all the men were asleep, Arne decided he would make his move. He snuck into one of the tents that a few men were sleeping in. They had been drinking all night so they were out cold. Arne took the dagger from one of the men’s hilt and held it with 2 hands. He drew a shaky breath and stabbed the sleeping man in the neck, killing him instantly. This sudden realization of what he’d done was setting in, but Arne couldn’t bring himself to care. He felt nothing but pure disgust from these men, and decided ridding the world of them would be for the better. He killed the other 2 men in the tent and fled off into the woods. He began to hunt for himself, and became completely self-reliant. He hadn’t the slightest clue where he was but he thought it would be best for him to look for a town or village with other people. He walked, he didn’t know how long, months, years, decades? He didn’t know. But eventually, about 6 months later, he found a small town. The villagers were at first afraid of them, he didn’t look like them, he didn’t speak the same language, and he was extremely rugged from the 6 months alone in the woods. Then again he was only about 6 so they’re biggest concern was either he was a scout or the 2 daggers on his waist. They took him in and taught him their language, which was a sort of French-English hybrid. He was adopted by a nice family who owned a farm. They treated him as one of their own and they all worked on a farm together. Around 11 years had passed like this. Arne was no longer the cold hearted killer he was before. He lived a peaceful life now and didn’t harbor any real hatred for anyone.

“VIKINGS!” A man named Ivor was yelling running through the center of town. Arne, being the son of Alek, was a natural born fighter. He grabbed his blades from his room and ran into the town square, where everyone was gathering.

“What’s going on?” Arne asked, he was 17 now, and a very well built man, albeit very small.. At about 5’4 he was shorter than  most others, however he was significantly more nimble than any other person he’d sparred with. 

“Oh thank god you’re here Arne, I was out hunting and saw a group of vikings at a nearby dock and they were coming this way” He panicked, trying to hurriedly explain what all happened.

“Calm down, I’ll take care of it” Arne reassured him. Arne had grown into an extremely dependable young man. With his calm, near emotionless demeanor and incredible swordsmanship, everyone in the town knew and respected him.

Faint laughter and yelling could be heard from the path leading into town and it was getting closer,  some of the voices sounded very familiar, but he wasn’t quite sure from where. The leader of the vikings stepped into the town and looked around at everyone staring at him.

“Well… guess you guys were expecting us” He scratched his head and looked around, seeing that almost nobody even had a weapon he wasn’t worried about it. He noticed Arne staring at him. “Hey kid do we have a…” his voice trailed off and he began to stare back. 

Arne was in shock, having memories flood back into his head at the sight of this man, it was Ellias. “You… it’s time you pay for what you did” Arne scowled.

“I can’t believe this! Guys, it’s Alek’s son, from like 10 years ago remember” He looked back and shouted to his men, laughing. However most of these men were not on his crew 10 years ago, as being a viking was a rather dangerous profession, some of his crew who did remain from then remembered however.

“He didn’t grow very much!” joked of the men. This resulted in laughter from all of them, even if they didn’t know what he used to look like, he was very short regardless.

“ELLIAS, DUEL ME, NOW.” Arne demanded.

Ellias looked back at his men and shrugged. “If you say so kid, it’s your funeral” he mocked.

They both drew their blades and Arne sprinted at Ellias, who remained expressionless. As Arne grew close Ellias went for a large horizontal swing. Unbeknownst to Arne, Ellias was actually near equal to Alek, they were from almost completely different parts of the world so they never got compared. But Ellias was a western, more sinister counterpart to Alek. Arne saw the swing just a second before it hit him, he barely ducked under it.

“Oh look at you! I thought that would kill you” Ellias had a surprised look on his face. Ellias stopped his swing half through and rotated his sword vertically, slashing down with incredible might. Alek rolled to the left and lunged at the now wide open Ellias, blade heading straight for his neck. Ellias shifted his eyes to look at his incoming attacker, knowing he wouldn’t have time to counter with his blade he was in imminent danger.

“You’re dead!” Arne shouted as he thrust his blade ever closer to his neck.

“Hmmmmm” Ellias thought for a moment. With one swift motion he kicked the mid-air Arne in the side of the head, sending him flying across the ground. He whistled. “Close one! You aren’t too bad, son of Alek”

Arne was struggling to get up, his vision was blurry and all the voices and cheering of the crowd was just one big murmur. He could make out Ellias walking towards him, he had to get up. He was able to stand, very wobbly and still dazed. Ellias laughed at this and lazily pulled out his sword and went for a quick strike. Arne, whether it was genetics,instinct,skill, or just pure luck, perfectly parried this strike and knocked the blade straight out of Ellias’ hand and sent it skidding across the ground.

“You brat!” This action frightened Ellias, as he was actually in danger for the first time since their confrontation began.

Arne once more began to run at Ellias, Ellias went for a wide swing of his fist, but being as nimble as he was, Arne slid directly under this and rolled through his legs, completely lacerating them with his blades.

“Tch, damn you, you stupid brat!” Ellias fell to his knees, his legs were destroyed, what Arne lacked in strength, he made up for in precision.

“It’s over, Ellias, prepare to pay for what you did to my father” Arne held his blade to Ellias’s forehead, drawing blood.

“Make it quick” He lowered his head and closed his eyes in shame. Arne began to swing at the neck of Ellias, in hopes of decapitating him. At that exact moment he remembered something his father told him. 

“Arne, you have no enemies…not a single one” Remembering this moment before his father’s passing, it brought tears to the eyes of Arne, this is precisely what he meant. He didn’t want Arne to become a cold-blooded killer like he was, yet he had anyway. He sheathed his blade.

“Hmm? There a problem?” Ellias opened one eye and asked.

“Ellias I have no reason to kill you, I have no enemies, not even you. So leave, leave this place and do not return” He began walking back towards town square, leaving Ellias sitting there, completely baffled.

“Up ya go captain, dunno how were gonna raid with you like this, but oh well” Ellias men hoisted him up, putting him arms around their shoulders, and began to walk back towards the ship.

“Arne!” Ellias shouted, it was the first time Ellias called him by his name. “You are a fine young warrior” He laughed as he slowly got farther away.

“Tch, what an idiot” Arne shook his head, he couldn’t help but smile at how ridiculous the monster of man Ellias was.

 He lived the rest of his life out as a peaceful farmer in this small village. He never once wielded a blade again in his life, out of respect for his fathers wishes.